Rylance's confusing speech at awards
Source: Agencies |
June 14, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
MARK Rylance won his second Tony Award. And, for a second time, left people baffled.
The British-born actor won the leading actor Tony on Sunday for playing Johnny "Rooster" Byron, a charismatic leader of a band of social misfits and outcasts squatting in the English woods, in Jez Butterworth's "Jerusalem."
He strode to the podium and then began talking about walls and molecular structure. "Unlike flying or astral projection, walking through walls is a totally earth-related craft, but a lot more interesting than pot-making or driftwood lamps," he said matter-of-factly.
It was a repeat of three years ago when Rylance similarly confused the Tony audience when he went on stage to collect the top acting prize for his work in "Boeing-Boeing."
"If you go into the woods, the back country, someplace past all human habitation, it is a good idea to wear orange and carry a gun," he told the crowd in 2008. "Or, depending on the season, carry a fishing pole, or a camera with a big lens."
It turns out that both times Rylance was quoting works by Louis Jenkins, an obscure poet from Minnesota. At the 2008 Tonys, Rylance was citing "The Back Country." On Sunday night, the Jenkins poem was "Walking Through a Wall."
Why did he do it? "I feel kind of sad when I win things, to be honest with you," he said. "I always think you should prepare something to say."
Rylance, who was the first artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe in London from 1995 to 2005, said in the days leading up to his second win that sowing confusion is part of the point of the poems.
"I bet most people understood it in many different ways, which was kind of the point of it anyway," he said.
The British-born actor won the leading actor Tony on Sunday for playing Johnny "Rooster" Byron, a charismatic leader of a band of social misfits and outcasts squatting in the English woods, in Jez Butterworth's "Jerusalem."
He strode to the podium and then began talking about walls and molecular structure. "Unlike flying or astral projection, walking through walls is a totally earth-related craft, but a lot more interesting than pot-making or driftwood lamps," he said matter-of-factly.
It was a repeat of three years ago when Rylance similarly confused the Tony audience when he went on stage to collect the top acting prize for his work in "Boeing-Boeing."
"If you go into the woods, the back country, someplace past all human habitation, it is a good idea to wear orange and carry a gun," he told the crowd in 2008. "Or, depending on the season, carry a fishing pole, or a camera with a big lens."
It turns out that both times Rylance was quoting works by Louis Jenkins, an obscure poet from Minnesota. At the 2008 Tonys, Rylance was citing "The Back Country." On Sunday night, the Jenkins poem was "Walking Through a Wall."
Why did he do it? "I feel kind of sad when I win things, to be honest with you," he said. "I always think you should prepare something to say."
Rylance, who was the first artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe in London from 1995 to 2005, said in the days leading up to his second win that sowing confusion is part of the point of the poems.
"I bet most people understood it in many different ways, which was kind of the point of it anyway," he said.
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